6s vs Bank of England 5s – 06.04.2019

Merton 6XIv Bank of England5XI

The clocks have gone forward and spring has spring, unfortunately they have forgot to tell the weather as arriving at the Hood it looked bleak with one pitch up, heavy cloud cover a cold wind and a hint of rain.

The team start to assembly being a combination of 3s, 5s, & 6s all in good sprites with the usually pre-match banter. A few players debating if they will last the full 90 Mins because of injury and/or lack of fitness however this was too much of an issue with 14 players, but wait Tom Johnson messaged in at 1.30 he was going to making it.

Out on the pitch we when through a full warm route to test the various aches ad pains with everybody declaring themselves ok to start. Which we did well and in an attacking mode with the usually 4-3-3 formation, with James & Lewis wide & Peter O in the middle. We had the B of E on the back foot and create many chances unfortunately without finishing any of them until Lofty hit a shot from 30 yards with plenty of top side so that hit the cross bouncy down & up a couple of time before crossing the line.

At this point B of E finally woke up and start to get through our midfield and they final won a corner, which we initially cleared but didn’t shut down the player 30 yards out who hit cleaned into the top right corner of the net, B of E have a video as proof as even they could believe that there player could hit a shot that well.

The rest of the half we created more chance which we turned into half chance with Pete & James being wayward with their shooting whilst the B of E were limited to long range efforts that generally when wide.

In the 2^nd things didn’t change much although B of E did come back into the game however their goalkeeper was the busier but we couldn’t score. Eventually the B of E managed to pull our defence out of shape and they deliver an inch prefer cross for the centre forward to volley home from 8 yards. There 3^rd came with 15 minutes left a free kick from 30 yards that deflected off Lewis’s shoulder over Martin.

The last 15 minutes was spent in the Bank’s half but we couldn’t score. It was a disappointing result but we did keep trying.

Last Week’s MOM Martin Quinlan was back in his regular position for this season Goalie and had a quiet and cold afternoon for his 900^th game for Merton having one shot to save but had no chance with the 3 Goals. In fact, spent a lot of the last 15 mIns on the half way line. In 900 games the B of E have been the most regularly Martin has played against. Onwards to 1000 games.

The Central defensive of Neil & Kevin a solid games with Neal being our start player. As for the DOD there were several candidates James & Peter for missing many good chances, Ryan with his powerful throw ins which force Lewis off the pitch and Luke to have a poor first touch when he came on and several players for getting frustrated and need speaking to the by the referee. James offer his performance for DOD but by a split decision it when to Tom for not turning up.

The most stupid moment was when the B of E very large Centre handled the ball with 5 mins left. He wasn’t even booked!

The Team

Martin Q, Kevin L, Matt H., James E., Lewis R., Aaron A., Chris O., Simon W (Lofty), Ryan B., Pete O-A., Neil D., Subs Luke N., Marcus P.

MoM – Neil Davison

DoD – Tom Johnson